|
For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
|
|
This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
|
|
|
|
To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Washington, D.C. --- President George W. Bush’s decision to rule out amnesty or automatic citizenship for undocumented immigrants will gravely affect the future of illegal Filipino immigrants in the United States—estimated conservatively at 300,000 to 500,000 but estimated extravagantly at over one million.
Bush said on Tuesday, March 21, that he was opposed to amnesty or automatic citizenship for the more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Amid an intense debate over the issue among US lawmakers, Bush ruled out amnesty for illegal immigrants but said he favored a “guest worker” program that would provide legal status for workers for a limited time period.
“In my judgment, amnesty would be the wrong course of action,” Bush told a news conference.
He said “a whole industry” of exploitation had emerged with workers being smuggled across the US border in dangerous conditions.
“The best way to do something about it is to say that if an American won’t do a job and you can find somebody who will do the job, they ought to be allowed to do it legally on a temporary basis,” Bush said.
Asked about those undocumented workers who have lived in the US for more than a decade, Bush said: “My answer is: That person shouldn’t get automatic citizenship.”
“One of the issues is going to be to deal with somebody whose family has been here for a while, raised a family, and that’ll be an interesting debate.”
Bush’s comments came as a showdown looms in Congress over rival proposals on immigration reform and a day after the Mexican government bought full-page advertisements in major US newspapers to set out its stance on the issue.
The news will disappoint thousands of Filipinos who are living or working illegally in the United States.
Known in the Philippines and the US as the “TNTs” (for tago nang tago, or in perpetual hiding), the undocumented Filipinos live in many parts of the United States, particularly in California on the west coast, and the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia axis on the East.
Many of them have violated the terms of their visas by overstaying, working or studying illegally.
The US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan estimates that there are more than one million undocumented Filipinos in the US.
The US Embassy in Manila has the second busiest consular office in the world, after Mexico, according to a study. The consular office receives an average 40,000 visa applications a year.
Filipino immigration to the US started in the early 1900s on the wave of sugarcane workers in Hawaii and cannery workers in Alaska. Among the first visitors to the mainland were the pensionados, as the government-sponsored students were called.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MANILA --- Ousted President Joseph Estrada finally got his day in court on Wednesday, March 22, claiming that he has been framed in a trial that he said was based on lies and political backstabbing.
The country had been awaiting this day since Estrada was arrested in April 2001, three months after his unceremonious back-door departure from the presidential palace amid a ‘’people power’’ revolt over allegations that he took huge kickbacks in office.
But the drama was limited as the former action film star finally took the stand to seek vindication and dispute the charges against him, which include economic plunder, punishable by lethal injection.
‘’There was no big bang, not even a small rocket fire,’’ chief prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio said. ‘’It was all denial.’’
A few hundred of Estrada’s most ardent supporters rallied outside, kept away from the anti-graft Sandiganbayan court by about 1,000 riot police.
Estrada was draped in symbolic patriotism, wearing a native Barong shirt, a Philippine flag lapel pin and his trademark white wristband with the presidential seal.
The only fireworks came early as the 68-year-old Estrada was asked about allegations that he sought kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes.
‘’These are trumped-up charges, a frame-up,’’ he said. ‘’I don’t have the conscience to steal money intended for farmers.’’
During a break, Estrada told ANC television that he was hoping for a fair trial. ‘’This is all political, you know,’’ he said.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye denied any unfairness.
‘’The fact that former President Joseph Estrada was taking the witness stand is a clear proof that due process has been strictly observed in his case,’’ Bunye said in a statement.
The day turned into a slow slog as lawyers tangled over procedural technicalities and court clerks scoured knee-high folders for bits of evidence. At one point, Estrada closed his eyes and appeared on the verge of dozing off.
Estrada was shown a check and Land Bank of the Philippines documents allegedly covering the transfer of 130 million pesos (US$2.5 million) worth of tobacco excise tax kickbacks from Ilocos Sur province to his camp.
‘’It’s the first time I’m seeing this. I have no knowledge of this, your honor,’’ Estrada replied before his testimony was adjourned for a week.
‘’I have mixed feelings. I welcome this opportunity to present my side because I was denied that right in the impeachment trial when prosecutors walked out,’’ Estrada testified. ‘’I was convicted in the streets.’’
The impeachment trial broke down in January 2001 when prosecutors were barred from presenting what they called a critical piece of evidence. Within hours, people massed for protests that led to his ouster days later.
Prosecutors allege Estrada amassed about 4 billion pesos (US$77 million) in illegal gambling payoffs, tax kickbacks and commissions stashed in secret bank accounts under an alias. He also faces a perjury charge for allegedly underreporting his assets in 1999.
‘’We expect justice to be rendered fairly,’’ said Dante Jimenez, an anti-crime activist who sat inside the packed courtroom. ‘’If there is a perception that it’s not, the danger is this might again divide the nation and cause trouble. The country will be watching.’’
Also attending were Estrada’s two sons -- including co-defendant Sen. Jinggoy Estrada -- his wife, Sen. Loi Ejercito, and his daughter, along with Ilocos Sur provincial Gov. Luis ‘’Chavit’’ Singson, a former friend who was instrumental in exposing Estrada’s alleged links to illegal gambling.
‘’I am 100 percent sure he will lie. But he is an actor. He can very well fake it,’’ Singson said.
The protests that forced Estrada to step down were partly led by then-Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who completed the remainder of his six-year term then won the 2004 election.
Estrada has been at the heart of Arroyo’s political troubles. Thousands of his followers tried to storm the presidential palace in May 2001 in what she called a failed power grab. Six died in the rioting. Estrada also has been linked to coup plots.
He blames his ouster on a ‘’conspiracy of the elite, church leaders and thieving politicians’’ and said Tuesday that he would be ready for a political comeback if he is acquitted.
Mostly portraying roles as an underdog champion of the poor, Estrada parlayed his massive popularity into a springboard to a landslide election victory in 1998, pledging that the presidency would be ‘’the greatest performance of my life.’’
Estrada’s reversal of fortune was as dramatic as his more than 100 films. Many of his followers hope for an end like those in his movies, where he emerges from near-death ordeals to triumph.
The trial started in October 2001. The prosecution rested two years later after presenting 76 witnesses and more than 1,500 pieces of evidence. Estrada’s lawyers say he is their 79th and final witness. (MNS)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Newark, NEW JERSEY --- Michael Ray Aquino, the former police official accused of passing U.S. secrets from a suspected White House spy to officials in the Philippines wants to enlist former President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Panfilo Lacson as witnesses in his defense.
In his motion, Aquino’s attorney asked a federal judge in Newark for permission to travel to the island nation to get a deposition from ousted President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Panfilio Lacson, a leader of the country’s minority political faction, the Associated Press reported.
Federal prosecutors said they will oppose the bid.
The request, disclosed publicly during a hearing on Monday, March 20, came as both sides plodded toward a trial that could showcase how a former Marine who worked as an intelligence analyst for the FBI and the White House was able to pilfer classified information and pass it to contacts overseas.
The analyst, Filipino American Leandro Aragoncillo, was arrested in September after an FBI investigation revealed he had downloaded more than 100 sensitive documents while working as an FBI analyst at the Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center.
Prosecutors have said they believe Aragoncillo, who lived in Deptford Township, Gloucester County, was part of a broader group conspiring to topple current Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
They have not named his co-conspirators overseas except to say they were government officials. But Estrada and Lacson have acknowledged receiving information from Aragoncillo; news reports in the Philippines last week also said both men have been notified they were overheard on FBI wiretaps.
“The notice said that my telephone calls with Aragoncillo were wiretapped,” Estrada said. “The wiretapping was authorized by the court.”
The New Jersey court indicated it had authorized the wiretapping as part of an investigation into Aragoncillo last year, Estrada said, adding that there was no suggestion he was under investigation.
Aragoncillo, who worked for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney before joining the bureau, has been cooperating with investigators since his arrest and is negotiating a plea agreement, court records show.
Aquino has not been as helpful. A Lacson protégé and former high-ranking official of the Philippines National Police, Aquino is accused of being a conduit between Aragoncillo and the Philippine officials. Last fall, a federal grand jury in Newark indicted him on a conspiracy charge.
Prosecutors say they have proof Aragoncillo gave Aquino sensitive U.S. information about terrorism, politics and criminal activity in the Philippines. And they say Aquino tried to obtain President Arroyo’s private telephone, travel and financial records.
Mark Berman, Aquino’s court-appointed attorney, has maintained Aquino was an unwitting pawn who may have forwarded information he didn’t realize was classified. Aquino, 39, was working as a nurse and living with his family in New York when he caught the attention of federal immigration agents last year.
In his motion, which remains under seal but was discussed in open court, Berman asked Senior U.S. District Judge William Walls to approve depositions of Filipino officials, including Estrada and Lacson.
The questioning, by a prosecutor and a defense attorney, would be videotaped and preserved for Aquino’s trial. Such depositions typically occur if a defendant persuades a judge that the testimony is in the interest of justice and that the witnesses could not testify at trial.
“Senator Lacson and President Estrada have made public statements that there was no reason to believe the information was classified and that they didn’t control Michael Ray Aquino,” Berman said after the hearing.
Estrada has been jailed in his homeland since 2001 on corruption and plundering charges. And neither man has an incentive to come to the United States, because a visit could subject them to criminal charges here.
Berman said he has not had any contact with Estrada or Lacson but that Aquino’s immigration attorney communicated with them and “feels confident they would cooperate” with depositions.
The lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Buch, said he would oppose Aquino’s request as unnecessary and improper under the federal rules of criminal procedure.
Such interviews could also force the government to reveal portions of its case to the defense perhaps months before trial.
The judge ordered both sides to return next month to argue the matter. If he approves the depositions, the trial is not likely to occur until late this year at the earliest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
